


Shoreline

by LittleDusty



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Sadstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-12
Updated: 2012-04-12
Packaged: 2017-11-03 12:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/381284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleDusty/pseuds/LittleDusty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gamzee just wants to be with his lusus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shoreline

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, first Homestuck fanfiction ever. Yay? I noticed a lot of people were into the idea that Gamzee didn't know how to swim, and I know people just love sadstuck with Gamzee and his lusus. So here you go.  
> Sorry if this has been done before. I just wanted to write it.  
>  **TW: depictions of drowning**  
>  Enjoy?

The young, wild-haired troll sat on the beach, surf lapping at his toes as he watched the horizon with glazed-over, half-lidded eyes. He rested his cheek against his arm, propped up on his knees that were hugged close to his chest. A half-empty pie tin sat discarded on the sand next to him, among other completely empty containers that were scattered along the shore. Fluorescent green sludge from the tin was still smeared on his lips. His lusus had left him here so long ago – hours? Days? He didn’t know. The sopor had dulled his sense of time. The passing had seemed so incredibly slow. 

The sensation of warm sand underneath him suddenly became unpleasant, and Gamzee Makara got to his feet, stumbling forward a little on lanky legs in his drugged stupor. He slowly lifted his head back up to gaze at the ocean, shimmering azure waves hypnotic against the candy-colored sunset sky. The white foam tickled his toes as it splashed forward over the sand, and he lifted a foot in a daze. He stepped back, away from the water’s edge, and blinked hard. His ocular globes had begun to sting with the threat of oncoming leakage, and he hurriedly snuffed the tears against the inside of his arm. Why was the old goat always gone? Where did he always go to? Questions Gamzee always meant to ask, but had never gotten the chance to. His lusus never stayed long.

The troll took several unsteady steps forward, his mind swimming with sopor and a sudden thought. He’d follow his lusus! Maybe he’s got things to work on, down in the sea, or on another patch of land far across the water! _Maybe,_ thought Gamzee with a slow grin, _maybe I can all up and be helpin’ him with his shit. Then he can come home, and we can spend some motherfuckin’ time together._ The troll was ecstatic – his plan was foolproof! He rushed forward and entered the water with a splash, and immediately let out a cry.

“Shit! This water’s fuckin’ cold!”

He stood knee-deep in the surf and wiggled his toes – this was the first time in a long time that he’d dared to go into the water. Not after the mishap a sweep ago with a certain violet-blooded seadweller. He smiled at the sun, barely there as it sank the last little bit below the horizon, and sloshed forward through the icy sea. Once he’d gotten up to his chest in it, he began to have some second thoughts – after all, he’d never really been taught to swim. His lusus had arranged for lessons, but was never home long enough to go through with them. Gamzee looked down into the water, seeing nothing but his own choppy reflection. 

The indigo-blood swung his arms around his body to loosen up his shoulders, held his nose shut, and ducked quickly under the surface. The water around him was dark when he opened his honey-gold eyes. His breath left him and bubbled up to the surface, and he followed the stream up, taking a gracious breath once his head broke the surface. His hair was plastered to his face in dripping, tangled strands; his make-up had begun to run together and trickle down his neck in wet streaks. He pushed off the ocean floor with his feet and fanned his arms out in a breaststroke motion, kicking lazily with his legs. Swimming wasn’t so hard! He windmilled his arms, holding his head up in front of him, and continued to swim onward. It never hit him that he had no idea where his lusus ever went to.

\---:o)---

Gamzee didn’t know how late it was or how far he’d gone, but he was tired. His fingers and toes were numb from the ocean’s chill, and his teeth wouldn’t stop chattering. His breath came in long, labored gasps, and his arms ached with the effort it took to pull the troll forward. _This wasn’t a good motherfuckin’ idea,_ he thought to himself as he huffed out another breath and listened to his kicks grow weaker and weaker – each splash made by his feet hitting the water grew smaller and smaller. He was sinking, his clothes heavy with salt water. Land was nowhere in sight, and the Capricorn slowed his swimming to a stop and began to tread water. His sense of direction had always been non-existent, and tonight was no exception. He spun in circles, trying to re-orient himself and attempt to go back the way he came. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he muttered with each rotation. The tips of his ears drooped down and the troll let out a worried yet frustrated growl. “Mirthful messiahs, wherever you are, help me outta this motherfuckin’ mess.” His chin brushed the water and his breath caught in panic as he pushed harder with his arms to keep himself afloat. “I ain’t gonna be all up and lasting too much longer out here.”

Gamzee picked a direction and kept going at a much slower pace, energy spent in his excitement on the swim out here to come see his lusus. Each stroke was a labor, hefting arms of lead to splash down and come back around, pulling him forward in minute, slow movements. He’d abandoned his kicks almost entirely, legs scissoring lazily behind him, completely submerged. His mouth and nose dipped under multiple times, and what seawater the troll didn’t swallow was coughed back out, washing the tingling sopor taste out of his mouth. Eventually, his eyes slid closed, exhaustion overtaking the troll as his body slipped underneath the surface of the water. He sank slowly, bubbles sliding one by one out of his mouth. His eyes fluttered open, but it wasn’t worth the panic when he saw near-complete darkness surrounding him. If his lusus really wanted him, he would stay. Gamzee wouldn’t have to chase the sea-goat into the depths of the ocean. He continued to sink and suffocate, but the last thing he saw before closing his eyes was a flash of white and a pair of long, curled horns - just like his.

\---:o)---

Gamzee Makara woke up where he’d began – on the beach, with waves lapping at his bare feet. He lay on his stomach, sand caked onto his body where he’d touched it, and he sat up onto his knees, blinking the salt out of his eyelashes. A sudden pain clenched at his stomach and he retched, vomiting up the contents of his stomach onto the sand in front of him. Luckily it was nothing more than Faygo, seawater, and sopor. He’d need a long while in the ablution trap before he would stop feeling gritty and nasty all over.

He stood on tired, unsteady legs, and collected the pie tins scattered along the shore of the stretch of beach where he’d been deposited, sliding his fingers through the cold sludge of the half-empty tin he’d left there. Gamzee sucked the slime off of his fingers and trudged through the sand back to his hive, throwing one last glance at the beach once he’d reached the entrance. 

In a tone both mournful and gracious, he gave a short laugh and said “Thanks, old goat,” before slipping inside.


End file.
